The present invention relates to balanced armatures for playback of audio in headphones, stethoscopes, peritympanic hearing instruments or hearing aids, and headsets, and more particularly to “in ear” applications where the ear tip comes in contact with an ear canal wall.
A balanced armature is an electro-acoustic transducer which converts energy from electrical energy to acoustical energy. Balanced armatures have certain electro-acoustical limitations where nonlinearity of the flux field and armature due to saturation create distortion at the output. Mechanical compliance is also limited which can further induce distortion. Limitations also exist in the frequency bandwidth of the design. The armature has natural resonant frequencies from mass and compliance relationships that can impede smooth frequency response. Depending on the resonant frequency of the armature, the design will be deficient in the low frequency and/or high frequency region of the response.